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Thomas Harrington, Senior Scholar at the Brownstone Institute, is an essayist and Professor Emeritus of Hispanic Studies at Trinity College in Hartford (USA) where he taught for 24 years. He joins Discernable to discuss what appears to be a worldwide repeat of the infamous Milgram experiment where ordinary people are pushed to commit extraordinary atrocities by authority figures.

As an expert in the formation of identity, culture and language he often sheds light on the rhetorical ‘framing’ techniques used to influence broad populations. An example of is the rise of modern ‘Nudge Units’ within governments known by various names such as ‘Behavioural Insights Unit’ et al. The Professor believes that once a suitably convincing ‘frame’ is established, a subject can be made to accept any proposition contained within that frame even if that proposition is antithetical to the frame itself.

This demonstrates the immense power and danger of ‘framing’ techniques employed by politicians and corporations throughout the globe to achieve their desired end. Thomas shows how this was successfully deployed to recruit a pliant population of ‘police citizens’ or ‘karens’ who zealously enforce the policies and propaganda of governments beyond what is legally stipulated and into the realm of cultural norms.

In this discussion we also looked at identity making vs decision making, the religious impulse of humans and what can replace it in a secular age, the reliability of rationalism and science and parallel societal structures.

PROFESSOR THOMAS HARRINGTON
https://www.thomassharrington.com
https://trincoll.academia.edu/tharrington
https://brownstone.org/author/thomas-harrington

Kirsten is a 20 year veteran in the Victorian health system. Her dream was always to become a paramedic, and after 7 years as a registered nurse in critical care she achieved her goal and went on to serve as a paramedic for a further 13 years.

In late 2021 she was given an impossible choice – submit to Ambulance Victoria’s vaccination mandate for Covid-19 and risk serious consequences due to her pre-existing medical condition, or be fired from the organisation that she loved.

Leading up to the launch of Covid-19 vaccinations in Australia, Kirsten chose to undertake additional training to be ready to assist in the vaccine rollout but despite 20 years of dedication and passion, her termination was cold and sudden.

This is her story.

Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy AM, MBBS(Hons), BSc(Med), PhD, DSc, FRACP, FRCPA, FRS(N) is a practising clinical immunologist with an international reputation for research in autoimmune disease, immunisation and mucosal inflammatory disease. He was Foundation Professor of Pathology at the University of Newcastle, where he established the Newcastle Mucosal Immunology Group, identifying mechanisms of airways protection and the pathogenesis of mucosal disease, and discovered new methods of disease control. He was awarded the first and only Doctor of Science by The University of Newcastle.

Professor Clancy developed the vaccine Broncostat at the University of Newcastle in 1985. The Broncostat vaccine reduces attacks of acute bronchitis to a degree of 90%.

In this interview with Discernable the professor surveys the state of Covid-19 in Australia and notes the discrepancies between the narratives woven about the disease at different times. Zooming out to explore evidence-based medicine, vaccine adverse events and the centralisation of health management by international bureaucracies such as the World Health Organisation, the professor finishes with his love of cartography and thoughts on how we can navigate through an increasingly political and potentially scientifically corrupt moment in the history of medicine.

PROFESSOR CLANCY’S ARTICLES AT QUADRANT
https://quadrant.org.au/?s=robert+clancy

PURCHASE THE LONG ENLIGHTENMENT
https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-long-enlightenment-robert-clancy/book/9781925043532.html
https://www.angusrobertson.com.au/books/the-long-enlightenment-robert-clancy/p/9781925043532

Gigi Foster is a Professor and Director of Education at The School of Economics at UNSW Business School. She holds qualifications in ethics, politics and economics, and joined Discernable for a second time to explain inflation and cost of living.

As the world suffers escalating prices on nearly all goods and services, are we experiencing inflation? Or is this simply market prices reflecting fluctuating supply/demand curves?

Is this a temporary phenomenon caused by supply chain disruption? Or is all the money printing by central banks devaluing our currencies?

This hour is an opportunity to learn what inflation is, how to identify it, what causes it, and what to do about it.

Jacob Mchangama is the founder of Justitia, Denmark’s first judicial think tank with a focus on human rights, freedom rights, and the rule of law. A practising attorney for many years, Jacob has become one of the world’s most sought-after and awarded experts on free speech driven by his extensive writing and media work.

His most recent book Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media chronicles the history of that ‘bedrock of democracy’ and has been praised as ‘the best defence of free speech ever made’.

He joined Discernable to explain whether free speech is a luxury or a foundational principle, and who suffers and benefits from free speech. We also looked at research on the Australian perspective of free speech.

JACOB MCHANGAMA
https://www.freespeechhistory.com
https://twitter.com/JMchangama
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdl1Iu0849d4UXQJvg8ondg
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-mchangama-a0b730
https://www.facebook.com/freespeechhistory
https://soundcloud.com/user-859605085

FREE SPEECH: A HISTORY FROM SOCRATES TO SOCIAL MEDIA
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1541600495/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_NJ2337X3QSECYRTR3GK1

Behzad Nikzad is a data scientist with a keen interest in mathematics and data modeling. He lives in Quebec, Canada and has experienced the same historic lockdowns as in Melbourne Australia, but under the Trudeau government. He has noticed the models relied upon for lockdowns becoming ever more ridiculous and unjustifiable and sees a sad demise of the scientific method as a technocratic priesthood emerges.

He has written a book on this phenomenon where large swathes of the population are dazzled and/or suppressed by a ruling elite who claim insurmountable knowledge for the layperson. Just like priests before the printing press being the only ones allowed and capable of reading and interpreting holy texts.

In this conversation he walked me through a retrospective data analysis where I was forced to guess which cities and countries had the strongest restrictions based on their results. We also uncovered absolute irrationality on display by SAGE.

We ran out of time to discuss the parallels to his family’s experience under the Taliban in Afghanistan, so Behzad provided this written account:

“

My mom was a teacher in Afghanistan. When the Taliban took over our city in 1995 (the first time) they closed schools for all girls. She could no longer work. She was no longer allowed out of the house without a chaperon. Every woman was required to cover their face.

The Taliban justified this by saying that, through mandates such as face coverings, they would build a better society. Anyone who questioned their logic was told that they were being immoral. My mom experienced the citizen-policing that happened then with people telling each other to cover up their faces. If she felt hot under the face covering and pulled it up for a minute, someone would show up to warn her that it was important for her to wear her face covering.

My mom had to relive that trauma as she became policed by her peers for not wearing her face mask. She told me that she once decided to go a very short distance in an indoor space without a mask and that someone yelled at her for it. She said the experience felt eerily similar to her experiences in Afghanistan during the (first) Taliban era.

“

BEHZAD NIKZAD
https://www.linkedin.com/in/behzad-nikzad
https://www.amazon.com.au/Gyaan-Yoga-Knowledge-Behzad-Nikzad/dp/B09T833WZ8

https://www.covidchartsquiz.com
https://twitter.com/FraserNelson/status/1472226949389037573

Dr Gilbert Berdine is an associate professor at Texas Tech University with degrees in chemistry and life sciences from M.I.T. and medicine from Harvard University.

Dr Berdine is a lecturer and attending physician, having treated many patients with Covid-19, as well as a published academic in peer-reviewed journals.

One of the earliest voices to predict the failure of lockdowns, Dr Berdine turns his attention to Australia in this interview to discuss the illusion of lockdown success, the ethics of vaccine mandates, and whether the claim ‘safe and effective’ is valid.

https://www.depts.ttu.edu/freemarketinstitute/people/berdine.php
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/public-health/2021/08/why-lockdowns-are-doomed-to-fail